Self-cleaning brushes have been made which are equipped with a means for removing foreign material from the brush and bristles.
A brush, for example, a hair brush, tends to pick up foreign materials such as hair, debris, etc. which have to he removed from the brush bristles periodically by means of suitable means such, as, for example, another brush, or a comb. It is rather time-consuming and is often inconvenient to remove such foreign materials in such conventional manner.
There have been proposed a number of so-called self-cleaning brushes which are equipped with means to remove such foreign materials from bristles, and these have been employed to some extent. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,529,927 issued Nov. 14, 1950 to H. W. Fisk and U.S. Pat. No. 2,916,757 issued Dec. 15, 1959 to L. R. Peilet et al disclose a mobile cleaning plate whose relative movement to the brush body is limited. The cleaning plates are lifted by fingers while retaining their respective brush bodies. U.S. Pat. No. 2,916,756 issued Dec. 15, 1959 to L. R. Peilet et al discloses a double acting self-cleaning retractable brush. Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2 of the patent, for cleaning purposes, the upper housing member 18 is turned in one direction. By this action, the bristle carrying member 22 descends within the lower housing member 20 while rotating with the upper housing member 18, thus allowing a compact structure.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,660,183 issued Nov. 24, 1953 to A. Gruring also discloses a self-cleaning brush. The bristles supporting plate 30 and comb supporting plate 32 are raised or lowered by means of the respective control screws 20 and 22. The cover plate 50, which defines a plurality of apertures there through, is integral with the handle body or casing 10 and therefore is stationary. The bristles 40 and combs 42 can be retracted within the handle body or casing 10.
The self-cleaning brushes disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,916,756 and 2,916,757 do not contain any locking mechanism which is adapted to retain the bristles in place when the brushes are in use for normal brushing purposes. Accordingly, the cleaning plates may move during the course of the use of the self-cleaning brushes, thus hampering the brushing application.
The self-cleaning brush according to the Invention disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,529,927 includes a locking mechanism which normally retains the cleaning plate in a locked position. The cleaning plate is, however, mobile, and the bristles are normally exposed. In order to clean the bristles, the hooks 13 have to be first released from their locked position one by one. This is rather slow and cumbersome.
According to the drawings of U.S. Pat. No. 2,660,183, and particularly FIGS. 3 to 6, a bristle or comb supporting plate is attached to the free end of its respective screw. A firm attachment would cause the supporting plate to move with difficulty, and a loose attachment would render it unstable and susceptible of breakage.
Another example of a self-cleaning brush is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,110,053, issued Nov. 12, 1963, to E. C. Surabian. Surabian provides a foraminous cleaning plate (18) through which the bristles (12) of the brush pass. This plate is normally held against the under surface on the back or the brush by spring members (26,28). Plate (18) has a central post (22) projecting upwardly through an aperture in the back of the brush, and one end of each of the springs is fitted into a notch on the upper end of the post (22). By pushing down on the springs the plate (20) with the post (22) is pushed outwardly toward the ends of the tufts of bristles, permitting cleaning of the brush, and when the pressure on the springs is released they revert to their normal arcuate positions, thus causing retraction of the foraminous cleaning plate. Since the cleaning plate (20) is mobile, the bristles are exposed; due to the use of spring members, the manufacturing cost would be rather high and it would be susceptible of breakage.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,517,703, to Eric J. Kole, to a self-cleaning brush in which the bristles of the brush can be retracted within apertures formed through the anterior wall of the brush to remove foreign materials such as hair, debris, etc., and the bristles can be readily held in place when the brush is in use for normal brushing purposes. However, a cleaning plate 19 and a guide plate 17 are required. The locking plate must be used to hold the bristles in place so that the cleaning plate can be placed back over the bristles.